Wisely have sages perceived that while success has many fathers, defeat has none. It is so with Congress. Sonia Gandhi’s coterie and self-appointed bards in the media are having a tough time whitewashing her inglorious tally in the recent parliamentary elections and passing the buck elsewhere. Nevertheless, both have gone about the task manfully, though their inward trepidation about the future of Congress under its ‘first family’ can no longer be concealed.
Even before the CWC meeting, it was widely known that the Congress high command (read Sonia Gandhi and her coterie) considered the Anthony Introspection Committee’s tepid report disagreeable. In fact, it felt that the report was ‘unsuitable’ for perusal by even senior leaders, let alone the rank and file, and general public. Hence CWC members were denied copies of the 200-page report and had to make do with an ‘executive summary.’ Even by the standards of this legendarily sycophantic party, this is unprecedented. The fact that the Signora has got away with it speaks poorly of Congress’ ability to re-invent itself as a democratic and responsible party.
None of this would matter much if Congress were content to simply to sit in opposition. However, given the utterly unscrupulous manner in which the BJP Government was toppled in its previous incarnation, and the continued campaign by sections of the media to project Sonia Gandhi (or even Priyanka) as the country’s ‘natural’ (read ‘legitimate’) leader, there is need for a close scrutiny of developments in Congress. This is all the more necessary because the forces behind the fall of the Vajpayee regime are re-grouping for a powerful new attack on the NDA government, and Congress is a key factor in their calculations.
One of the most disappointing aspects of Congress and media analyses of the poll outcome is the complete failure to take the Election Commission’s favourable schedule into account while computing the party’s performance. Congressmen privately contemplating the popular verdict would do well to appreciate that the actual results would have been far worse if the Commission had not stretched the polls over an unprecedented five weeks. A poll schedule spanning a week or ten days at the most, for instance, could have reduced the party tally to a two-digit figure.
The poll schedule not only gave Sonia Gandhi the opportunity to single-handedly campaign all over the country, but also enabled Congress to dilute the emotive issues creating a ‘Vajpayee wave’, such as the illegitimate fall of his government and the magnificent Kargil military and diplomatic victory. The party also availed of this interregnum to introduce new issues into the arena, such as the so-called ‘Pakistani sugar scam’. Moreover, it was the piecemeal election schedule that maximized the damage the Kalyan Singh – Sakshi Maharaj duo dealt the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, and enabled Congress to stage an impressive recovery in that state.
If Congress could deliver its worst-ever-electoral tally despite the scales being so heavily tilted in its favour, there is an honest question mark over its president’s political genius, leadership qualities, and popular appeal. On its part, the government has an obligation to ensure that no Election Commission functions so brazenly in future – it foisted a five-month caretaker regime on the nation, tried to paralyze the administration with a virtually interminable code of conduct, and finally gave us the dubious distinction of holding the longest election in a free state!
To return to Congress, however, the Anthony committee, working on expected lines, handsomely exonerated Sonia Gandhi of the charge of leading a party with winning electoral mathematics to a humiliating defeat. Instead, all has been unfairly blamed on the party’s ‘inherent weaknesses.’ As the Signora has headed the organization for a good while now – indeed, her indecent haste in snatching it from the octogenarian Sitaram Kesri was supposedly to ‘rejuvenate’ it – this is a poor excuse.
However, given the state of inner party democracy in Congress, it is no surprise that the official briefing following the lukewarm CWC meeting omitted even oblique references to the role Sonia Gandhi’s decisions played in derailing the party’s electoral prospects. Mr. Pranab Mukerjee, who briefed the media, claimed that the CWC felt that no single reason, even the toppling of the Vajpayee government without providing an alternative, could be held responsible for the rout.
The Congress leadership has a short memory. Yet it would do well to recollect that a similar censorship of CWC discussions provoked Sharad Pawar, Purno Sangma, and Tariq Anwar to come out in the open on Sonia Gandhi’s foreigner status, with serious consequences for the party. Already, party men are privately expressing surprise at the identification of organizational weaknesses as the sole cause of defeat. This could yet result in surprise fall-outs for the party, as the message from the leadership appears to be the same as the one given at Talkatora Stadium earlier this year, i.e., follow and obey blindly, or leave. However, at Talkatora, Sonia Gandhi (and everyone inimical to the BJP) thought she held the sweepstakes in her persona. Today’s a different ball game.
It was only to be expected that Congress would leak like a sieve once the Anthony report and CWC deliberations were papered over by Pranabda. It transpires that the Anthony committee actually identified three explicit causes of the debacle, viz., the party’s role in voting out Vajpayee without providing an alternative in April; the expulsion of Sharad Pawar in May; and organizational weaknesses.
Clearly, the first two issues were fudged over because of Sonia Gandhi’s personal culpability. But the party has also failed to see the full picture. While Congressmen admit that the events of April metamorphosed Sonia Gandhi from reluctant leader to power-hungry politician, they continue to view Sharad Pawar’s exit as merely a loss of 42 seats, which denied the party its winning edge. Actually, Pawar’s challenge is much more fundamental. While questioning Sonia Gandhi’s bid for Prime Ministership on grounds of her foreign origins, he also challenged the constitution of the party’s power hierarchy, in which rudderless leaders wield power and leaders with a mass base are ruthlessly downsized.
Since then, Congress has failed to resolve either the foreigner issue or that of the power hierarchy. This makes introspection an exercise in futility. Some CWC members reportedly wanted responsibility fixed for the events of April and May, on whether Sonia or the coterie, or both, were liable. Naturally, the proposal never got off the ground. Yet, today, a subterranean movement for such accountability could well gather steam. This can only be to Sonia Gandhi’s detriment.
Finally, the failure of the pre-electoral alliances defies rational explanation. The association with Jayalalitha was a foregone conclusion after her role in bringing down the Vajpayee government. What is inexplicable is how she was angered enough to cancel a public rally with Sonia during the campaign period itself. Similarly, the ill-conceived alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, and the blow hot, blow cold affair with the Haryana Vikas Party in Haryana did nothing for Sonia Gandhi’s credibility as a mass leader.
The coterie has tried to pretend that none of these things happened. This has created a poignant situation in which the leadership has been absolved while the meek and amenable party fashioned at Talkatora Garden earlier this year has been held responsible for the unenviable situation in which it finds itself. Little wonder that Congress today is rudderless, its defeat fatherless.
The Pioneer, 21 December 1999